A monorail is a railway which makes use of an elevated track with only one rail, instead of a pair of rails. The term monorail is colloquially used to describe any form of people mover or elevated rail. One of the major drawbacks of monorail systems in their early days was their inability to switch rails. However, many monorail systems tried overcoming this problem by using circular tracks which form a continuous loop. Modern monorails are capable of switching tracks quite efficiently. Presently, Asia has most monorail systems in operation and these have gained maximum popularity in Japan with the monorail running in Tokyo being of the busiest in the world.

The global monorail systems market is being driven by the overall growth of the rail supply market. The rail supply market comprises rolling stock, rail infrastructure turnkey project and rail signaling services and this market has witnessed steady growth in the recent years, fueled by numerous rail infrastructure projects. Further, rapidly growing urbanization and economic growth of the countries in Asia Pacific and Latin America is leading to the demand for alternative transportation and investments in rail infrastructure market which is driving the monorail system industry steadily.

The global monorail systems market can be segmented on the basis of monorail type, propulsion type, size and region. Based on monorail type the global market can be bifurcated into straddle and suspended. The straddle segmented dominated the global market in 2016. Increase in demand for high speed trains coupled with growing investment in rail infrastructure in the developing economies is expected to contribute further to the growth of this segment during the forecast period.

By propulsion type, the global monorail systems market can be segmented into electric and maglev. The larger share of the global market is expected to be held by the electric monorail systems. The robust growth of this segment can be attributed to the increasing need for effective and efficient public transportation systems. Electric monorail systems are in high demand in developed economies of The U.S., U.K. and Germany and their demand is projected to witness stable growth in the emerging countries such as Brazil, South Korea, China and India where several new infrastructure projects for light rail are being launched.

The global monorail systems market can be additionally segregated by size into large monorail, medium monorail and compact monorail. Furthermore, the market can be classified geographically into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the leading region in the global market during the forecast period which is mainly owing to the presence of high technology monorail, huge population and increasing need for efficient solutions to combat the growing traffic. Further, this region comprises some of the fastest developing countries such as China, South Korea and India which are collaborating with private and foreign players to finance rail infrastructure projects.

The global monorail systems market report provides the market share analysis of the key industry participants operating in the industry. The global market is relatively stagnant in nature and moderately competitive, characterized by the presence of changing leading players which switch between the automotive and railway industry.

However, these players aim to gain a competitive edge, being focused on diverse features and several up-gradations in the monorail technology. Some of the major players operating in the global monorail systems market include Bombardier Inc., Siemens AG, Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. Other prominent players in the market are Alstom, The Urbanaut Company, Sinara Transport Machines, The Greenbrier Companies Downer Group, CSR Corporation Limited, Scomi Engineering BHD, Aerobus International, Inc. and Skoda Transportation among others